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SMOOTHING THERAPY

Straightening vs. Smoothing

Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy is different. Conventional straighteners or relaxers may break the protein bonds within the hair’s structure, causing each strand to reform into a permanently straight shape.

Keratin Complex’s revolutionary technology does not break the hair’s bonds, instead delivering the versatility of smoother, healthier-looking hair that can be styled wavy or straight as desired.

Keratin Complex’s signature keratin works effectively on all hair types. Our unique Smoothing Therapy treatments contain high concentrations of keratin that penetrate throughout the hair structure, and then are sealed within the cortex to repair damage.

HOW SMOOTHING THERAPY WORKS

Though there are differences in formulations and protocols between the various Smoothing Therapy treatments, the basic smoothing process is the same.

Four Steps To Smoother Hair:

Step 1:

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The pre-treatment step removes surface buildup and prepares the cuticle, lifting its overlapping layers to allow the treatment to penetrate the hair.

Step 2:

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During application, the keratin treatment penetrates into the hair’s cuticle. Hydrolyzed keratin strengthens keratin bonds from within, helps repair damage, and smoothes the hair shaft.

Step 3:

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Keratin and additional conditioning agents help nourish and strengthen the hair, while restoring smoothness and shine.

Step 4:
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The hair shape is further adjusted with the assistance of heat—first with a blow-dryer and finally with a flat iron. This final step helps seal in the treatment to create a humidity-resistant finish.
Disclaimer: All information herein is based on current scientific research and is subject to change based on new findings.

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Obviously you wouldn’t purposely spend precious time and money to transform your hair color to a gorgeous shade of caramel or achieve perfect honey highlights only to ruin it the second you step out of the salon.

Unfortunately, many of the seemingly harmless aspects of your daily beauty routine — from showering to using your favorite hair products — may take a bigger toll on your dye job than you think. Here, all the things you should look out for to protect your hair color.

1. Water
While shampoo has long been deemed one of the main causes of premature fading, saturating strands with water alone can wreak havoc on dyed hair. Water swells the hair fiber and lifts the cuticle, allowing water-soluble dye molecules in the matrix of your hair to escape, And if your hair’s cuticle is compromised (which is most likely the case if you color it, heat-style it, and so on), it’s even more susceptible. If your hair is damaged, it swells more easily when wet, making dye even more likely to get out.

2. Heavy Styling Products
Although it seems counter-intuitive, some hair oils and shine serums that you often reach for to soften your over-processed strands could, over time, have the reverse effect. That’s because these types of formulas often contain ingredients like heavy silicones, that coat the outer cuticle layer of hair. Some types of silicones can build up on hair and when product builds up, it can also attract dirt and particulates from the air, all of which can cause color to look more dull even if it’s actually intact in the hair fiber.

3. Physical Aggression
Ripping through tangles with a brush or comb or constantly putting your hair up in tight ponytails and buns. Eventually, it damages the cuticle. Roughing up the hair is going to compromise the integrity of the structure itself, which means dye molecules will release out of strands and lead to your color fading much faster than it should. To help lessen the wear and tear, apply a light leave-in detangling or hydrating treatment daily on wet or dry strands to create better brush glide, and opt for softer, looser ponytails and buns.

4. Heat-Styling
Hot tools scorch strands — literally. And the more damaged the hair’s cuticle layer is, the more susceptible it is to allowing water absorption to increase the loss of color and make your hair’s hue appear dull. Even though the color molecules may be inside strands, when hair is damaged, the surface isn’t in great shape, so it’s not laying flat down to reflect light. The goal: to keep strands smooth and align the cuticle for a natural shine benefit.

5. Skipping Trims
Think about it — the ends of your strands are the oldest, which means they’ve had to withstand the most heat damage and chemical processing. Over time, the ends become more and more damaged. This is why the dye molecules take differently to this section of hair … not because of the split ends. The result: the bottom of your hair doesn’t have the same fresh color as the rest of your hair. Getting regular trims is recommended — every 10 to 12 weeks depending on the length and health of your hair — as well as using a treatment to help keep splits to a minimum.

6. Never Using Conditioner
Not only is using a daily rinse-out conditioner with hydrating styling products essential to keeping your color bright, using a hair mask, regardless of your texture, is crucial. Once you strengthen your hair and get it as close to its virgin state as you can, the easier it’s going to be to get the color that you want and the more choices you have in colors. When hair is extremely damaged from drastic color changes (like that time you went from blonde to black and back to brunette), it suddenly doesn’t hold onto dye as well and can end up looking ombré even thought it’s not.

7. UV Light
The sun’s rays can lead to the break down of hair’s matrix, which, as we now know, can exacerbate hair color fading along with a long list of other not-so-pretty side effects such as making hair dry, brittle, dull, and difficult to style. Unfortunately, hair products are yet to be laced with super effective sunscreen, so the best sun protection for hair is a wide-brimmed hat, says Mancuso. To help replenish lost moisture from over exposure to the sun’s UV rays, use a lightweight leave-in conditioner daily. We recommend applying a hydrating mask to damp hair before wrapping it up into a low bun or loose braid. This helps hide some strands from excessive UV exposure, especially the ends, which are the most prone to damage.

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Humidity can wreak havoc on your hair if you let it. Luckily, even a small change in your hair care routine can tame puffy hair; specially-made products as well as home remedies round out the attack. If you don’t want to settle with puffy, lawless hair on a humid day, you should be able to help matters.

Part 1 of 3: Everyday Hair Care in Humid Environments

  1. Get the right cut. If you live in an area that is known for humid weather, consider getting a haircut that caters to your hair type. Long hair and straight cuts add the weight needed to pull down hair that would otherwise puff out. An angled or slightly layered cut will remove some of the bulk. A layered cut will emphasize curls, but could result in puffier hair.
  2. Shampoo at most every other day. Shampoo is great for cleaning dirt and grime away from hair, but it’s not so great at taming puffy hair. That’s because shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils, which make your hair silken and combat frizz. Some people go for as long as a week in between shampooing.[1] The exact amount of time is up to you, but the consensus is that waiting a couple days between washes produces healthier, less puffy hair.
  3. When conditioning after shampoo, wash off conditioner using cold water. There’s some debate about how effective this is, but the idea is pretty simple: cold water causes the cuticles of the hair to contract, simultaneously adding shine and taming frizz.[2] Some scientists, however, doubt the effectiveness of cold water on the scalp, saying that since hair cuticles aren’t living cells, they shouldn’t contract.[3] The debate aside, this advice shouldn’t cause puffy hair, so try it out and see if it works. As discussed below, certain specially-designed leave-in conditioners can help fight puffy hair.
  4. Dry hair gently. If your hair is prone to fly-aways and frizzes, carefully blot your hair dry with the towel instead of rubbing. Allow hair to air-dry as much as possible to reduce the amount of puffiness in your hair. If you blow your hair dry, avoid a lot of movement with the blow dryer. Blow your hair dry slowly and in small sections on the lowest heat setting. Remember to blow down the shaft of hair instead of across it, which separates hair sections, or upward, which provides volume and lift but also adds puffiness to frizzy hair. Keep in mind that blow drying removes moisture from the hair strands, which increases frizz.
  5. Avoid over-combing your hair. It can be tempting to smooth out your hair with plenty of brushstrokes after stepping out of the shower. But brushing or combing your hair causes friction, which causes heat and breakage to the hair cuticle.[4] This leads to puffy or frizzy hair. Instead of combing your hair like you’ve entered a contest, use a wide-toothed comb or a paddle brush with ball-tipped ends. Finish off with a light pass using your fingers as a comb.
  6. Decide on a style for the day that works with your natural hair type. In humid weather, you hair will tend to do what it naturally wants to do. Fighting your hair type will probably cause you a lot of frustration; chances are you’ll end up losing every time. If your hair is straight, avoid the urge to put it in curlers on humid days. If your hair is naturally curly or wavy, work with the waves instead of opting for a straight style.
    1. Try tying your hair up in a bun or ponytail and finish off by applying some anti-frizz gel.
      If you’re having a truly tremendous hair day, never underestimate the help a hat or well-tied scarf can do for your hair.
Continue reading “How to Prevent Puffy Hair in Humid Weather”

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Humid air causes hydrogen bonds to form between water molecules and the proteins in your hair, triggering curls and frizz.

If you have long hair, you probably don’t need to look up a weather report to get an idea of how much humidity’s in the air: You can simply grab a fistful of hair and see how it feels. Human hair is extremely sensitive to humidity—so much that some hygrometers (devices that indicate humidity) use a hair as the measuring mechanism, because it changes in length based on the amount of moisture in the air.

Straight hair goes wavy. If you have curly hair, humidity turns it frizzy or even curlier. Taming the frizz has become a mega industry, with different hair smoothing serums promising to “transform” and nourish hair “without weighing hair down.” But just why does humidity have this strange effect on human hair?

Hair Cross Section

Hair’s chemical structure, as it turns out, makes it unusually susceptible to changes in the amount of hydrogen present in the air, which is directly linked to humidity. Most of a hair’s bulk is made up of bundles of long keratin proteins, represented as the middle layer of black dots tightly packed together in the cross-section at right.

These keratin proteins can be chemically bonded together in two different ways. Molecules on neighboring keratin strands can form a disulfide bond, in which two sulfur atoms are covalently bonded together. This type of bond is permanent—it’s responsible for the hair’s strength—and isn’t affected by the level of humidity in the air.

But the other type of connection that can form between adjacent keratin proteins, a hydrogen bond, is much weaker and temporary, with hydrogen bonds breaking and new ones forming each time your hair gets wet and dries again. (This is the reason why, if your hair dries in one shape, it tends to remain in roughly that same shape over time.)

Hydrogen bonds occur when molecules on neighboring keratin strands each form a weak attraction with the same water molecule, thereby indirectly bonding the two keratin proteins together. Because humid air has much higher numbers of water molecules than dry air, a given strand of hair can form much higher numbers of hydrogen bonds on a humid day. When many such bonds are formed between the keratin proteins in a strand of hair, it causes the hair to fold back on itself at the molecular level at a greater rate.

On the macro level, this means that naturally curly hair as a whole becomes curlier or frizzier due to humidity. As an analogy, imagine the metal coil of a spring. If you straighten and dry your hair, it’ll be like the metal spring, completely straightened out into a rod. But if it’s a humid day, and your hair is prone to curling, water molecules will steadily be absorbed and incorporated into hydrogen bonds, inevitably pulling the metal rod back into a coiled shape.

Click here to find out on how to help prevent Puffy Hair in Humid Weather

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Bleaching can leave your hair with mild to severe damage due to acidic action of strong chemicals or wrong handling or extreme heat application during the procedure. The ruined hair might feel dry, spongy, porous, brittle or rough due to damaged hair cuticles which cover the cortex, carrying the hair’s natural color. While store-bought potion and products might help repair the condition, there are quite a few easy, natural ways to get your hair healthy after bleaching.

1. Shampoo your hair less often. In order to restore your bleached hair, you will have to discontinue washing your hair daily. When you shampoo your hair, you are not only cleaning the hair but you are also stripping the natural oils and sebum from your hair. The oils and sebum are natural moisturizers. If your hair is prone to looking and feeling oily, use a dry shampoo on the days that you don’t wash your hair.

2. Deep condition your hair one or more times per week. The amount that you condition your hair depends on how often your hair needs it. Apply deep conditioner to your hair after you have already washed it with shampoo and regular conditioner. Use a wide-toothed comb to distribute it through your hair. Warm a towel in the dryer or with a hair dryer. Wrap your hair with the warm towel. Leave the deep conditioner and towel on your hair for 30 minutes. Wash it completely out of your hair.

3. Always wash hair with lukewarm or cold water. Hot water promotes dryness in the hair. That is counterproductive to restoring bleached hair as your goal is to add moisture to your hair. If you wash hair with lukewarm water, always rinse your hair with cold water at the very end. That will seal the cuticle.

4. Use a leave-in conditioner after every time that you wash your hair. As bleached hair is often porous and prone to tangles, a leave-in conditioner adds moisture and makes hair easier to comb. That will prevent strands of hair from breaking off.

5. Do not use heat on your hair. Avoid using blow dryers, hot rollers, flat irons and curling irons. Heat is detrimental to restoring your bleached hair. If you are not willing to forego heat when styling your hair, it may be impossible to restore the hair.